Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Now I'm bugged

I think the news of my love for cicadas spead around the insect world...and while I'd have welcomed the red-eyed guys, I'm am not so thrilled to find the bugs I'm finding now.

I planted vegetables this year. I was so enthused about the prospect of picking a few squash and throwing them right on the grill for dinner, or tossing some tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers with a red wine vinagrette, seasoned with some oregano.

The plants got off to a great start, too...bright leaves, abundant blossoms. I was thrilled by the first embryonic fruit...a pepper the size of my pinky thumbnail, tiny zucchini.

Then the leaves on the tomatoes started yellowing and curling. The blossoms dried and the baby fruit stayed small and green. The squash turned brown and soft, and the peppers were stunted.

I tried watering them. I'm a lazy gardener...I thought maybe we weren't getting sufficient rain. Then I quit watering them, thinking maybe they were getting too much rain. Then I noticed the little white spots on the tomato plants were moving...aphids. And on closer look, I found baby hornworms.

And across the yard on the squash, the leaves of which were also dying...a greenish yellow spotted bug. At first my hopes were raised: a lady bug come to eat the aphids! But after an internet search I found out I was playing host to spotted cucumber beetles, which could spread bacterial wilt which may well be what's killing the squash and cucumber.

The flowers out front are also full of holes, but I'm not sure what's eating them. Japanese beetles, maybe, although I know I have slugs and I also saw an earwig.

Oh, and my next-door neighbor (in my townhouse, so we are attached) told me she has termites.

At least I have one friend:

...but she really needs to get eating.

Posted by Nic at June 26, 2004 02:07 PM